


Reading a Poker Face

by Procrastination_Sensation



Series: Ace up Their Sleeves [2]
Category: Magic Kaito, 名探偵コナン | Detective Conan | Case Closed
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-01
Updated: 2017-10-01
Packaged: 2019-01-07 11:45:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12232185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Procrastination_Sensation/pseuds/Procrastination_Sensation
Summary: In which Conan does something he should've done eight years ago.[Alternate Summary: The Kaitou KID's last (abandoned) scavenger hunt.]





	Reading a Poker Face

**Author's Note:**

> Set the three days following the Kudou Mansion Incident, and takes place before Outbluffing. Beware of copious amounts of hacking, and try to spot the Holmes reference!

It starts, as all the stories go, with the soulbond.

Of course, it’s still not exactly the same beginning as all those stupid fairytales. They all started with a casual brush of fingers while walking down a street, a startled glance (why would you care if you brush fingers with a stranger? Just keep walking.), eye-contact with their soulmate’s soulmark (practically no one wears their soulmark out in the open like that. What were the authors _thinking_?), and then a sudden kiss and the feeling of completeness in the soul. Nothing about a ridiculous amount of pain, which would’ve been nice to know, thanks. Just a spontaneous, unexplained kiss with some person you just passed on the street, and suddenly everything’s perfect: happy ending.

So forgive Shinichi for not really reading up on soulmates. Because honestly, it had all just sounded so stupid. Even googling the topic of soulmates mostly just gets you a bunch of stuff on romance (which had _not_ applied to him and Ran, thank you very much) and “success stories”. That is, until you delve _really_ deep (which he’d finally done two months ago) and find the not-so-kid-friendly stuff about not-so-success-stories, and all the fun stuff about the estimated lifespan of someone trying to survive an incomplete soulbond and soulmates getting their other-half’s mono after the initial kiss. Go figure.

Anyway. The soulbond.

The Kaitou KID was always a mystery. How couldn’t he be? A master thief, all those unnecessary complications he sets up for himself by sending out heist notices, and still succeeding every time. Ridiculously intelligent. Known worldwide, a career reaching back into his father’s time, a task-force dedicated to him, fans everywhere, and besides being a thief he generally has a good reputation. Especially considering he always returns what he steals (there _was_ the matter of that home-run ball, but honest-to-God did a stupid baseball really matter that much anyway? It would’ve been taken home by whichever fan caught it either way. Looking into it, Conan doubted the authenticity of that entire “heist”, anyway. The heist notice had just been a child calling the police saying KID would steal the ball.)  

But Tōsan had been the one to make Phantom Thief 1412 the Kaitou KID, and if Tōsan hadn’t been interested in figuring out who the thief was, just in the hunt (the chase), then Conan was comfortable doing the same.  

The combination of the fact that they’re soulmates and what happened yesterday changes things, though.

Conan likes to think he’s managed to fake a casual and a “nothing’s wrong” vibe the last couple times he’s met up with KID. The soulbond’s been there in the back of his head the entire time, gnawing at the cage he’s locked it up in (even though it’s pretty free when KID’s not around. He’s pretty sure Haibara’s gotten really fed up with hearing Conan talk about him.)

He can’t shut it in any kind of cage right now. Hell, it’s leading him by the nose at this point.

Yesterday night had been a _disaster_. He doesn’t know what had _possessed_ Haibara to call KID to the Kudou mansion (he knows, but he still wants to be mad at her, so that’s locked up somewhere where his soulbond instincts usually go), but that fiasco had ended with nothing but trouble. Haibara hadn’t gotten to do what she wanted to do, but she’d managed to plant a curiosity in KID that Conan had not needed.

What she’d also managed to do (with Conan’s help, much to his regret), was scare KID. The unshakable, unflappable Kaitou KID had been trembling, cringing away from any contact. Not to mention the loss of KID’s poker face, leaving a horrifically honest look of bewilderment and fear. His soulmate had been _terrified_ , sitting there on Shinichi’s stupid armchair, and Conan couldn’t do a damn thing to comfort him, because he’d been one of the ones his own soulmate had been terrified of.

So yeah. Chaining up and boxing away his soulbond (already difficult enough lately with how strong it’s gotten) is not an option. Now it (he) needs to make sure KID is okay.

Which leads him to the crux of the problem: he doesn’t know who KID is. Which may make things slightly difficult.

He starts the footwork of the investigation asap, even though there isn’t much footwork to be done. Can’t exactly address the problem detective style. God, imagine the poor soul that walks up to someone with a picture of the Kaitou KID and asks “Have you seen this man?” And any questions would either get him a pat on his head and a condescending tone, or an undeserved dressing down from a man that needs to honestly chill, considering he’s been chasing the Kaitou KID for longer than Shinichi’s been alive and still hasn’t caught him. The man being Nakamori-keibu.

So, here remains the main fact: if you want to figure out the truth behind the Kaitou KID, don’t focus on catching him (God knows that’s impossible. Conan feels an embarrassing amount of pride in his soulmate for that). You just have to approach the problem from an entirely different angle.

Take the result and work backwards. Figure out the steps that lead to that result.

Okay.

The result is obvious: the Kaitou KID. A phantom thief that sends out heist notices and always returns the gems he steals. Factor in snipers after him, and continuing the KID performance: implies being KID means more to him than his life. Also leads to the question of why there are snipers after him in the first place.

Hm.

Ducking away from the kids isn’t something he normally does (anymore), not when he’s promised to play soccer with them, but after the argument with Haibara during lunch he’s not really up to faking everything’s okay. He doesn’t want them chirping out questions he can’t really answer without explaining a lot of things they have no business knowing anyway. So after ditching (he’s purposefully not thinking about what Ran will do when she finds out Conan ditched halfway through school), he goes to the library and looks up heists he hadn’t been involved in, figuring it will maybe give him some more facts to work on. As… emphasized heists involving the royal jewels (the European Princess’s and the Crystal Mother) are, the one that catches his eye is the Blue Birthday. Well, technically, it isn’t the Blue Birthday itself that catches his eye. It’s the fact that reports of gunshots being heard from nearby the heist location had appeared in the same newspapers as the the report on the heist itself.

A point that is suspicious even though Conan knows about the snipers. Snipers have rifles, a distinctly different sound from handguns, and would’ve had a different sound origin. Reports of gunshots heard near the heist location imply there was someone near (or at) the heist location that was shooting an actual handgun. Maybe multiple someones.

Which is self-explanatorily suspicious. Why are the incidents not even speculated on as being connected? No third party had appeared as a victim of mugging or a drive-by or anyway else, and the gunshots had to have been targeting _someone_. Which means… KID could’ve been the target? Speculation for now, a possibility to be supported or disproved. But, in either case, again, why had the gunshots themselves not been reported? If there _had_ been no third party, and KID had been the target, he would’ve been shot at his own heist. So was there any reports of gunshots on the official police reports? Conan hacks into the police system, surreptitiously making sure no one is looking at him and his computer. No reports. So why not? To be investigated.

Next case point: the heist notices. Why does he send out heist notices? Why make things more difficult for himself? Maybe for the specific purpose _of_ making things difficult for himself? It wouldn’t be out of character for KID to be an adrenaline junkie that writes out notices so there will be a higher risk of capture, making a heist more fun for himself. Possibility noted.

Following: the return of the jewels. For what purpose? With the Blue Wonder he’d openly admitted to Conan that he “didn’t want the jewel” anyway. Admittedly, the return of the Black Pearl _may_ not have been intended, though KID _had_ , at least, personally tossed Conan back the Black Star, which basically says he didn’t care about it’s loss that much, considering he’d still gotten away. It _is_ true, however, that KID has willingly, purposefully turned over a large number of jewels. There have been reports of many a time that KID had _had_ the jewel in question, could’ve easily gotten away with it considering his track record, and yet had nonetheless returned them.

It’s… possible, that this could correlate with the previous possibility. Technically, almost all results added together could simply be a result of a bored genius that happens to be an athletic adrenaline junkie.

Almost.

But there are snipers after KID. People that shoot at him, despite the worst he’s ever done is knock people out to escape or impersonate them. Unless you count the public humiliation (if you can call it that) he puts his task force through, but _they’re_ not the snipers, so Conan doubts it’s that. And KID, despite showing signs of not being completely sane, is most likely not suicidal. If he was just an adrenaline junkie, he could find something better do rather than risk his life. Which means it’s likely that there is a reason besides that for the things he does.

So. Back to the question of why the gunshots had never been reported. Assuming they _had_ been targeting KID: a possibility would be that it had been covered up. But who could’ve covered up a police report? Conan knows the Black Organization could, but what would _they_ want with KID? Conan’s pretty determined to make sure they _don’t_ have anything to do with KID, thank you. But maybe another group? It’s not impossible.

In fact.

That theory would correlate everything, really. Conan can’t say it’s conclusive, but it _does_ all fit. Assuming, of course, KID is trying to draw them out. There’s no way KID doesn’t know about them, considering they’d shot at him at close range (if it’s true), and if he was playing KID and trying _not_ to draw them out, then sending out the heist notices- well. Those were pretty indicative of the “drawing them out” theory. And returning the jewels? Maybe the jewels were what the _group_ wanted, and he targeted them to draw out the group, but returned them once the group hadn’t shown up, because he hadn’t really wanted them in the first place? It would explain why the snipers, however incompetent they were, were targeting him, anyway. A definite possibility, in all.

But working off that: why was KID drawing them out? Why did they matter so much to him that he’d risk his life to do so? What did he hope to accomplish? Was it just a want to put people with illegal weapons, shooting at people, behind bars? … Maybe, but not probable. Conan can’t say why, but he doesn’t think that’s the case. So why else…?

Revenge.

A horrible thought, but one he deals with on a daily-enough basis that it definitely can’t be discounted. But revenge for _what_?

And _who is the Kaitou KID?_

Conan needs more data.

 

~

 

Tuesday. He has to sit through the entire school day this time because Ran had been insufferable: it had taken a lot of puppy-dog faces that he hopes he never has to own up to in order to get her to drop it. He feels slightly guilty about ignoring the kids, but he’s still angry at Haibara and they seem to be worried about pushing buttons they probably shouldn’t know exist. He spends the entire class ignoring Kobayashi-sensei and thinking on the problem at hand, his soulbond keeping him single-minded.

By the time he gets out of class he’s decided to get at least one book on the Kaitou KID, because maybe _it_ would have more information. Books haven’t failed him yet. Considering how famous KID is, he’s bound to have at least one partial biography. Hell, Conan’s so confident that there _is_ at least one that the only worry he has is that it’s sold out. His soulmate is that popular.

( _'_ _I bet no one besides_ us _have managed to get close enough to him to see how beautiful his eyes look when he smiles’_ the stupidly romantic soulbonded part of him sighs dreamily. _‘Shut up’_ he so eloquently returns.)

He’s brought his skateboard with him today for the sole purpose of jetting away from school grounds so the kids won’t try to ask him anything, but he’s glad he’s brought it considering it means he can get to the bookstore that much quicker. When he arrives at the bookstore he finds there’s no less than two partial biographies on KID, a book that speculates on the careers of particular famous thieves that features KID, and a magazine with a full two-page spread in color dedicated to KID and his “magic hands”. It’s a gossip magazine. Targeted towards teenage girls. He spends an entire ten minutes trying to convince himself he does not need it.

(He fails. No one can ever know he spends actual money on a teen gossip rag. Especially not Hattori. Or Haibara. Or his parents. Oh _God_.)

Even the lady at the counter looks almost confused, although it dissolves into that special brand of amusement that makes his entire face burn. He can’t look her in the eyes.

He still senses eyes on him when he leaves the store, three books (and one magazine) heavier, although he’s not sure if it’s her or if it’s someone else. If it's someone else, he prays to God they don’t see how flushed the back of his neck feels. He is pathetically grateful to Agasa-hakase for inventing the turbo-feature on the skateboard.

 

~

 

He doesn’t sleep that night, his soulbond making him rather wretched with how desperate he is to make sure his soulmate is okay. The one that he can’t just poke his head into her room or call up whenever she’s out of his line of sight, anyway. The books, all three of them, are disappointing: they tell him nothing about KID himself, really. They’re mostly just compilations of how the heists went down, what he’d stolen, and who his rivals were (Conan wonders if Nakamori-keibu is aware that he is referred to enough in these narratives to be entitled to royalties. Should he tell the man? Or would that be tantamount to admitting he’s basically become KID’s fan and get him banned from heists? Not worth the risk.).

The three main points that Conan settles on as important are decided on at approximately two a.m, which is also the time Occhan stumbles home nearly dead-drunk and Conan probably can’t get away with reading by the light of a flashlight under a blanket anymore. So he puts the books down (the magazine is hidden inside his English copy of The Sign of the Four, which he hopes no one who may see it will be interested enough to open it), and stares at the ceiling, mind whirling, waiting for Occhan’s snores to fill the room so he can sneak out and use Occhan’s computer in his office.

He’s quiet, padding on silent feet out of the room, making sure Ran will not hear him and wake, because _she_ is not drunk and insensible to the world. He knows Occhan’s password since the man mutters it aloud every time he types it in (although it wouldn’t be a difficult guess. The name Kogoro and his inclination towards stupid puns would’ve made “5563” a no-brainer), so he logs in once the computer’s booted up. Once he logs in he sits back in the chair, his legs folded, and puts his fingertips together, staring at the screen.

There are three points of interest. They’re all things that can contribute themselves to any number of theories, but there’s one theory he’s come up with that he’s settled on as the most probable solution (following Occam’s Razor: the correct solution).

One: the Kaitou KID has been active for eighteen years. His first ever documented appearance was not a heist: it was an event that people later remembered because shortly after KID became popular. Something about driving a motorcycle out of a tower, carrying off an unknown woman.

Two: the Kaitou KID’s method of heist notices. When he’d first started sending out heist notices, KID had used a method a lot like scavenger hunting, like “go here to find next clue”, which ended with at least five different locations with one hint each as to the what, when, and where of the upcoming heist (something pokes out from the back of his memory at this. Something familiar, a memory so old he can’t quite pull it up without taking his attention away from the search for KID). This method had ceased after the eight year hiatus of the Kaitou KID, his reappearance introducing a form of heist note that was more announcement than hunt.

Three: There has only been two occurrences in the history of the Kaitou KID where KID has failed to show up to a planned heist. The first was twelve years ago, and later rectified with an apology note sent to Nakamori-keibu (referred to as “the officer at the head of the Kaitou KID Task Force” in ‘Magician of the Moonlight Part One’) citing a medical emergency as the reason, and a reschedule of the heist. A reschedule that was, of course, followed through with the greatest care to detail. A reporter at the heist apparently claimed to hear KID say that, because of the unforeseen reschedule, he’d gone all out for that heist.

The second time KID had failed to appear at a heist was eight years ago: the beginning of his hiatus. It was the last anyone heard of him until his reappearance eight years later, and there was no mention whatsoever of that particular absence. In fact, KID hadn’t even spoken during his first heist after returning: odder still was that he wore a Night Baron-esque mask for both the first heist and the first half of the second. It seems that after stealing the Eye of the Moon, KID had made his way to the rooftop using his usual tricks, and when confronted on said rooftop by the police he had already abandoned the mask, upon their approach announced himself, and then disappeared in a cloud of smoke, par the course.

The first point would not be a point, if it were not for Conan’s deduction during his first face-to-face meeting on that rooftop with KID. Conan, upon seeing KID approach for the first time in full view: moonlight shining bright behind him, had immediately decided that KID was younger than 20. Which would, of course, make a career beginning eighteen years ago impossible. There was always the possibility that, with all his skill in disguises, KID really _was_ a middle-aged… person. Hell, there was no guarantee that KID was even _male_. Maybe KID wore the teenage-boy disguise to throw people off his track? But…

As rare as it was for a person to develop a soulmark after birth, Conan found upon looking it up, every documented occurrence shows that they only really form before puberty. New soulmarks and soulbonds, it has been concluded, would be too much of a burden on a soul that had already lived a decent amount of years. Only young souls are malleable enough to adapt to the sudden acquirement of a soulmate.

Which meant, really, what Occam’s Razor had indicated anyway. Conan’s soulmate, the teenage boy that was known as the Kaitou KID, was not the original KID. He had presumably become the Kaitou KID after the eight-year-hiatus. (Knowing now that there was more than one KID made the KID of the first and second heist after the hiatus suspicious. The mask implied that that KID had been an imposter. But then was it Conan’s KID that had been the one to meet the police on the roof, no mask and using KID magic? Conan shakes his head vigorously: now’s not the time to go on a tangent! He has a soulmate to find!)

But. If Conan’s KID _is_ acting for vengeance, which seems to be the most likely solution, who…? Maybe- a light snaps on in his head, less a lightbulb and more a _spotlight_ with how _obvious_ it is, ugh. It’s the Original KID. Conan’s KID is acting as KID for the Original KID.

Well, this opens an entirely new line of question. Such as: considering Conan’s KID is now KID, what happened to the Original, the one Conan’s soulmate is doing this for? From here there are two possibilities: one, that the Original retired, and he(?) is now directing the current KID. Option two… the Original is no longer alive, and KID is doing this either for revenge (for what?) or as a tribute to the Original.

Then Conan’s fingers go cold, dread pouring ice-water into his veins. He shivers involuntarily. In either case, the Original would be important to KID. Very. Important enough to be risking his life to continue the Kaitou KID act in the Original's alter-ego’s name. Eight years ago, the Original sent out a heist note and never attended. Eight years ago the Kaitou KID disappeared.

(Eight years ago, Shinichi looks down at his previously-blank wrist and sees a soulmark.)

(Eight years ago, Shinichi comes down from his shower and finds his mother crying on the couch in the living room. He memorizes the day as the first day he’s ever seen his mother cry sincerely: as a woman and not an actress.)

A horrified rush of adrenaline fills Conan, and he nearly knocks down the keyboard in his rush to type in the words “deaths on” and then _the date_. More afraid than he’s been in a long while, Conan shakily presses the “Enter’ key.

It wasn’t supposed to leap out at him like this, like an underline to the accusation that he’d been feeling ever since the night of the Magic Lovers’ Murder Case. It wasn’t supposed to point a metaphorical finger ( _"_ _You’re the culprit!”_ ) at him, practically screaming obscenities at him, saying “If you had only _looked_!”

**Kuroba Toichi Dies in a Tragic Accident During one of his Magic Shows**

Conan can’t bring himself to do more than scan the article with a building inferno threatening to burn him alive from the inside-out, started by the anger of his soulbond. _‘How_ could _you?’_ it accuses him, self-disgust fuelling this waking nightmare. His eyes catch on a line that damn-near stops his heart.

Kuroba Toichi is survived by his wife, Kuroba Chikage, and his young son, Kuroba Kaito.

Accompanying the article is a picture of a massive funeral, hundreds of mourners, but centerpiece is a woman holding a young boy, crying into his shoulder. The boy is not facing the camera, but his profile is captured well-enough that Conan can tell that this is the boy that could grow into the teenager KID is.

Conan is thankful that there is a bathroom specifically for the second-floor office. It greatly decreases the chance that Ran will hear him puking his guts up.

After that, Conan curls up in a corner of the bathroom and comes the closest to crying he’s gotten in a long while. The chirping of birds and the rising sun does little more than alert him that Ran will be up soon, and that he can neither physically nor psychologically pretend everything is okay right now.

 

~

 

He escapes the Detective Agency, leaving a hastily but carefully written note to Ran saying that he’d promised to talk to Agasa-hakase before school started and that he’d head to class from there. He stands for a while around the corner, out of sight of anyone who might recognize him at this hour, and wonders what he should do next. At about ten minutes until school starts, he’ll call them using the voice-changer, set to either Ran or Occhan (probably Ran) and tell them that Conan can’t come to class today. Because he honestly can’t. Yesterday had been annoying, irritating, and a waste of time enough: if he tries to sit through class now… he doesn’t want to think about what could happen.

He’d rather not go to Agasa-hakase’s place: he knows Haibara will be there, and the churning in his heart does not guarantee a safe encounter with her at this moment, no matter which way the conversation goes. If she asks him why he looks horrible he obviously won’t want to tell her, and he’s still angry at her for the Kudou mansion, probably will be for a while yet. After the revelation he’s just had, he’s not sure he won’t try to take some of the guilt out on her.

But the library, though opening in half an hour, is not exactly an option right now.  The staff know him too well to not know he should be at school in an hour, and he doesn’t know how long he’ll have to take to find Kuroba Kaito’s address. He doesn’t want to go to the library only to have to leave within an hour to avoid suspicion, yet still probably gain suspicion for just being there at this time anyway. And he can't risk them mentioning it to Ran later.

So. Either find a third option, or kill an hour waiting for Haibara to leave for school, leaving Hakase’s house available. Conan toes at the ground thoughtfully, considering. Then he spins on his heel, walking in the opposite direction of Beika Elementary. He thinks he remembers there being an internet café somewhere around here, and it’s one of the less classy ones, where the patrons won’t even notice if a seven year old walks in and stays passed the time school usually begins. As long as he pays and doesn’t draw attention.

He’s right, as usual (his soulbond snaps at tender parts of his mind in retribution for that thought, and he doesn’t hide the flinch that no one at the café notices). He settles down at a computer that’s set apart from the main cluster near the front, hunkering down so no one will see him past the computer unless they actually look. Then he logs in, and stares thoughtfully at the screen. He _could_ hack into every high school system in Japan and look for Kuroba Kaito. He has the correct spelling for his soulmate’s name after all. The only way he can see that not working is if Kuroba Kaito is home-schooled. But it would take _so long_.

Conan tilts his head to one side at that thought, thinks over how long he’s waited to even find Kuroba Kaito in the first place, and starts up his search. It’s methodical: starting with Beika High even though he’s _pretty sure_ that’s not right, but he won’t place his bets on his own “ _pretty sure_ ”s for a while after everything that’s happened, then moving slowly outward in a spiral so he won’t lose track of where he’s already checked. One high school after another, one hacking following the other, and he can only be grateful that School Systems have low security and that the couple of people that have noticed his presence by now _really_ don’t give a damn.

After almost an hour of searching he isn’t even close to being done, but he has to pause for a moment to “go to the bathroom”, meaning “call Beika Elementary to tell them Conan won’t be coming in today”. On his way back to his computer his head isn’t so full of all the high schools he still hasn’t searched yet, and he actually pauses mid-step when he realizes there is a hopefully easier way to find Kuroba Kaito.

During the Blue Wonder Heist, KID had shown that he was skilled at riding a motorcycle. Now, it of course wasn’t guaranteed that KID’s civilian persona would actually have a motorcycle license (Conan had already discarded the idea of checking if Kuroba Kaito had an actual driver’s license, even though he _could_ drive, considering the Sunset Mansion), but. But a teenage boy (especially if said boy is an adrenaline-junkie) having a motorcycle license and showing off on a motorcycle is less suspicious and more likely than a teenage boy having a driver’s license when he (seemingly) has no need for one.

It takes all of five minutes once he’s decided to try it out, and the picture staring back at him near makes him want to bang his head on the desk, a helpless bit of (slightly deranged) laughter bottled up inside his throat.

Kuroba Kaito looks remarkably similar to Kudou Shinichi.

Conan forgoes hitting his head on the desk in favor of the less attention-drawing rubbing his face with his palms. _‘What even is my life?’_ he thinks, half-hysterical. The other half of his mind is already flooding into his limbs, logging off the computer, getting up, and going to pay the attendant so as to leave the café.

 _‘Soulmate,’_ that other half of his mind whispers, and the word resonates in his mind.

 

~

 

He wasn’t expecting to feel like a stalker while trying to locate his soulmate, but he feels like he’s one-upped the title at this point. Even though it’s not like he’s _following_ Kuroba Kaito around. Technically, he really isn’t a stalker. But spending a fair half-hour after reaching Ekoda High locating the perfect place to watch Kuroba Kaito while he’s in class definitely reaches very disturbing levels of _creepy_. Especially considering he needs his glasses’s zoom feature, which brings to mind the image of an adult man using binoculars to spy on high school girls during gym class, the image accompanied by the unfurling of humiliated self-disgust that settles squarely in his ribcage.

The moment he lays eyes on Kuroba Kaito, his soulbond smothers all of those thoughts faster than he can even take a breath. A feeling of warmth spreads from his wrist-out, the taste of comfort and safety that will fade back to the not-so-dull-anymore throb of pain sooner or later. _‘Soulmate,’_ his mind calls out, anguish and want as it reaches with metaphorical yearning fingers towards the boy that is still a street and school-yard away from him. Conan flinches back at the sudden intensity, wrenching his eyes away from the boy- _‘Kaito!’_ his soulbond cries- as a hot blush suffuses his cheeks, his eyes tearing up at the onslaught. Frantic, Conan tries to chain up his soulbond in the smallest corner of his mind he can manage.

His soulbond rears up in protest at this denial, and for once in his life he is of two minds, the _‘Why’_ s bringing with them rushes of agony. _‘I don’t even know him!’_ Conan returns, panic fighting the soulbond’s struggle for control.

_‘You came here!’_

_‘He’s okay! That’s all I needed to know!’_

_‘Soulmate! Kaito is_ soulmate _!’_

 _‘I_ know _!’_ And he does. It doesn’t matter now, that he barely knows Kur- _Kaito_ , as disgusting as he wants to feel for it. He doesn’t know Kaito (KID? There is no knowing KID. The Kaitou KID is a mystery). He can’t- shouldn’t be in love with someone he doesn’t even know. It makes no sense, should be impossible, an emotion like this that is formed in the space of a few days (the day he’d seen Kaito’s soulmark, Sunday, today, because there is no true in between) is better classified as infatuation- a dirty emotion disguised as love.

Soulbonds are terrifying because he knows this is not infatuation, can feel it in the marrow of his bones that he _loves_ Kuroba Kaito, even though he’s never experienced _love_ before. Not this romantic love that is burning just underneath his skin. Ran has always been safe, a comfort, soft conversation over breakfast. Kaito is a promise of exhilaration, hands warming wind-bitten skin, laughter brightening the darkest of environments. Conan’s breath stutters, and, unintentionally his eyes flicker back to Kaito, the zoom feature still activated.

Kaito is commanding his class’s atmosphere, it seems. Leaping from one classmate’s desk to another’s and another’s, displaying a skill in acrobatics that brings an unconscious smile to Conan’s lips. He seems to be avoiding a mop wielded by a girl that looks remarkably like Ran, the dodges appearing so instinctive it’s almost a scripted dance, with so much delight on his face that shows this is little more than a game they play. He manages to throw her off with a sleight of hand, a trick fit for a heist, and Conan watches the classroom bursts into applause. _‘How has no one guessed he’s the Kaitou KID?’_ Conan wonders, exasperated and fond.

His soulbond reaches out with that metaphorical hand once more, reaching for Kaito, and it thinks quietly, firmly, _‘Our’s.’_ Conan wants to flinch back again, because the word is possessive and horrible, but at the same time it reverberates in his wrist and his heart and his mind. _‘And we are his,’_ he insists, weak relief flooding him as he concedes. His mind reaches for Kaito, laughing and poking fun at the girl-who-is-not-Ran, wishes and wants, but.

The agony flares up in his soulmark, returning with a vengeance, as he settles back down, no intention of meeting and talking to and establishing a bond with Kaito.

Kaito can’t know Kudou Shinichi. Not yet. So Conan settles in his spot by the window and watches his soulmate.

 

~

 

Kudou Shinichi has always been a logical person.

But there has never been anything logical about love.

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is a self-indulgent process of investigation that I wanted to write. So be aware that I very clearly used my powers as the author. I don’t read newspapers much, but I am aware that newspapers aren’t supposed to release names of minors to the public. I think. Maybe that’s just for when the child is involved in a crime... Also, lots of hacking. I don’t think there’s mis-characterizations, but your interpretation of (mostly Conan’s) character and mine may be different. So please no comments complaining about it. 
> 
> I already wrote something like this in Molting, but it’s like two paragraphs long and just a list of things Conan figured out. There were also a lot of universe-only points Conan used in that, so I wanted to figure out how Conan figured out who KID was in this one.
> 
> The last part when he actually finds Kaito got a lot deeper than I originally planned, but just before writing it I read something that made me remember how much I usually dislike spontaneous “I’m in love” scenarios, and I wanted to really clarify (to you guys and to myself) that there’s a lot more to this… relationship than that. I mean, over the course of the four months, Conan’s /barely/ interacted with Kaito, you know? Just heist encounters (and the Kudou mansion). So Conan (Shinichi) being in love with Kaito sounds kind of out of left field?
> 
> The soulbond’s basic function is emotionally connecting/bonding the two (or more) soulmates. Generally, the strongest form of emotional connection that’s positive is love. So the soulbond (unless it’s platonic) makes soulmates fall in love with each other. Not to say that they won’t develop those bonds once they get to know each other! The initial bond is just there so there’s a starting point and soulmates don’t just run in the opposite direction upon finding each other.
> 
> And the reason Conan panics so much here, even though the bonding started when he first saw Kaito's soulmark, is mostly because it was suddenly a lot more real to him. KID (is a mystery) was basically an abstract concept, especially with how Conan kept restricting the amount of freedom his soulbond had on heists. Conan could acknowledge that KID was his soulmate, and be protective of him because the soulbond was establishing itself, but he couldn't mentally connect the idea of "Kaitou KID, my soulmate" to a real person. Then he found Kaito and realized how far gone he was over a /real person/ that he didn't even know and, well, panicked.


End file.
